Or you just want to kit up and melt Teemo’s HP bar with Caitlyn’s auto (just right-click and win).

Whatever the case, I’ve got you covered.

You’ll be playing on the Fields of Justice in a bit after you get LoL installed on your Chromebook.

It’s “Time to Feast!”

Last updated: 1/2/18.

Some things you should know before getting started

This guide gets pretty complex at parts, so it’s recommended that you take it slowly and don’t rush.

It also involves some degree of coding and a basic knowledge of computers (don’t worry about the code- it’s all ready for you to copy and paste).

If you don’t League running on your Chromebook the first try, it could work on the second. Or third. You may have to tweak the settings and play around until you connect all the dots to get the game installed and running.

As a side note, this won’t work for every Chromebook. Some models out there just don’t seem to work and League of Legends just refuses to run- even with the same hardware and OS. It’s very bizarre.

But then again, we’re trying to get a game to run on an OS that wasn’t made to support it in the first place, so we’re bound to run into problems.

And another note, you should definitely back up all your stuff. Installing LoL on your Chromebook requires a Powerwash, which basically will delete all your local data. Your Google Account is fine, but your stuff saved on your laptop’s hard disk will be deleted. We’ll cover this again later and I’ll remind you when to back up your stuff.

Okay. That’s enough rambling. I’m sure you’re anxious to play the game already.

We’ll go over some basic hardware needs, then the actual installation, then some tips to boost performance, and then some troubleshooting pointers if you can’t get it to work.

Ready to play some League of Legends on your Chromebook?

Let’s roll.

Learn how to install and play League of Legends on your Chromebook.

Basic Hardware Requirements

Can a Chromebook run League of Legends? Can it play it? Can it even install it?

To answer these questions, we’ll have to break it down to the specific hardware requirements to run the game.

As stated earlier, this process won’t work for all Chromebooks. That’s why we need to go over hardware requirements.

Your laptop needs to meet only one basic requirement to install and run League:

It needs to be powered by an Intel CPU.

That’s the bare-bones minimum. You can check what processor your Chromebook has by looking for an Intel sticker somewhere on the frame. If you don’t see one, look on the bottom panel for the manufacturer’s sticker. It should list all the components used. Look for the Intel logo or text.

If you have an Intel-based Chromebook, you probably have one of the following CPUs:

Intel Celeron

Intel i3

Intel i5

Intel i7

Intel M3

They should all be compatible for the purpose of this tutorial. If you have something else that’s branded by Intel, don’t worry. You’re good. As long as it’s Intel, you should be okay for the majority (unless you have a really, really old Chromebook that’s dated).

Here’s a few of them. The following processors are not compatible with this guide:

Intel Tegra K1

Intel Atom

ARM (by Advanced RISC Machines)

Rockchip (by Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Co., Ltd)

MediaTek M8173C (used in the Acer R13 Chromebook)

Again, you can check your processor by looking for a sticker on the frame next to the touchpad, or underneath the laptop. If you really don’t know, then just look up your specific model and get the specs online.

The only other hardware requirements to get League running is strictly for performance.

Obviously, the more RAM and storage you have, the better. The game will run at about 20-30 FPS with a basic 2GB RAM with an Intel Celeron processor. A lot of newer Chromebooks now come with 4GB of RAM and more powerful processors, so you can expect better FPS.

(We’ll cover how to increase performance and FPS later in the guide.)

Storage is another thing in its own right. The bare-bones minimum storage capacity for a Chromebook is 16GB. They all run SSDs, which is good for fast read and write speeds (which means a less laggy game). But 16GB is way too small for League of Legends. You’ll want to use an external hard drive or get a Chromebook with a 32GB or 64GB SSD. The game won’t fit on a bare 16GB drive. That’s a pain point for a lot of Chromebook users.

If you happen to be one of them, I’d strongly suggest getting a Chromebook with more storage capacity. Of course, this means returning or exchanging your laptop. But it really depends on how much of a hardcore fan you are and how bad you want to play LoL on your Chromebook.

Okay, that’s enough for hardware. Now let’s actually get to the steps.

Installing League of Legends on Chromebook

Ready to install League on your Chromebook? Let’s “SoRAKa.”

This is where you’re actually going to install the game. This will take anywhere between 2-5 hours (it varies widely), so make sure you have the time set aside because it’ll be difficult to pause it once you get started. (You’ll probably also want to get a Red Bull.)

How this works is pretty straightforward. We’ll be installing a copy of Linux and dual-booting the Chromebook with two operating systems. League doesn’t run on Chrome OS, so it’s going to have to be Linux with a few other tweaks to get it running. To install League, you need to install Linux. To install Linux, you’ll need to install Crouton.

So it goes Crouton > Linux > League of Legends.

That’s about it in a nutshell.

Things you’ll need:

Chromebook with Intel-based CPU

Internet connection

A secondary computer, tablet, or phone for referencing (you should probably pull this page up on it right now)

Got all your stuff? Let’s go.

Step 1: Enable Developer Mode

The first step is to switch to Developer Mode.

Note: This is where you’ll want to backup your personal data. All your images, videos, files, and other stuff saved on your Chromebook’s hard disk will be deleted. In essence, your Chromebook will perform a Powerwash automatically. You can either back up all your stuff using a cloud service like Google Drive or back it up using an external hard drive or SD card.

Another note: Your Google Account settings, Chrome apps, history, and other user data will be saved on Google’s servers. So don’t worry about that stuff. It won’t get deleted.

Okay, did you backup your stuff? Let’s continue…

So, you’ll need to enable Developer Mode. This lets us bypass a lot of Chrome OS’s built-in security checks so we can install Linux. I’ve already written an in-depth guide covering exactly how to do this, so go ahead- read the guide and enable it. It covers everything step-by-step. Go through the guide and then come back here and continue.

When the whole process is finished, your Chromebook will restart and you’ll see a warning screen when it’s done booting up.

It should say something like “OS verification is off.” That’s normal.

Press “CTRL + D” and your Chromebook will boot into Developer Mode to complete the transition. If you’ve already done this, you can ignore this step.

Okay, now with your Chromebook in Developer Mode, you can install third-party apps and programs. We’re going to be installing Crouton, which will let us install a copy of Linux. Remember the overview of the installation path we’re taking from earlier? This is the next step.

I also strongly suggest reading over the page. It’s important that you use the proper arguments in your code in the next step. In this tutorial, I’ll simply be covering how to install League of Legends on a basic Chromebook.

If you have a touchscreen Chromebook, you may want to add touchscreen support to your installation. Or if you want additional security parameters, you can add that too. The catch is that you need to add additional code. You can refer to the Crouton GitHub page for the exact code you need to type in. But this is optional.

(If you choose not to add anything fancy, you can simply follow this guide and install the basic setup. That’s completely fine too and it should work without issue.)

Step 3: Install Linux on your Chromebook

You’ll need a copy of Linux on your Chromebook to play League.

Here’s where we get to the fun stuff- the code. Now’s where you’ll start seeing some stuff happening.

Don’t fret. It’s very easy.

I’ve typed out all the code you need to input into the command line interface. All you need to do is make sure you don’t mistype anything. And be sure to type them in without any quotations. A single invalid character will throw an error. So if you get errors, be sure that you input the code exactly as shown into the command prompt.

First, you’ll want to open up a command terminal window.

To do this, just press “CTRL + ALT + T” and a window will pop up with some intro text and black background in your browser.

(You should probably memorize this keyboard shortcut for the command terminal because you’ll be using it a few more times throughout this guide.)

Next, type “shell” and press Enter.

You’ll see some more text pop up that states you’re inputting from the localhost. This is where you’ll actually install Linux.

Customizing your Linux installation

The following instructions are completely optional, but it’s probably worth reading just to make sure whether or not it applies to you.

As you may know, there are a ton of different distros of Linux available. By default, Crouton will install the support release of Ubuntu (which is 12.04 or higher) for the operating system. The desktop version will be Unity.

You can completely customize what version of Linux you want, such as Debian, Kali, or the many different versions of Ubuntu (Quantal, Raring, Trusty, Feisty, Gutsy, Hardy, Intrepid, Saucy, Natty, Lucid, Maverick, Hoary, Dapper, and a lot of others). If you’re comfortable with what you’re doing, feel free to install whichever distro you want.

If you want a supported release, you should only consider Precise (12.04), Quantal (12.10), Raring (13.04), and Saucy (13.10). Precise is the stable default installation of Linux with LTS (long-term support).

Along with the Linux distro, you can also customize the desktop you want to install. You can choose from quite a few different versions such as Xfce, Unity, KDE, Gnome, E17, Cinnamon, and LXDE. Each desktop environment has its own user interface, so it’s up to you to decide on how much eye-candy you want and what you’re comfortable working with.

If you’re new to this, you’ll probably want to do some research on the different Linux distros and desktop versions. And then choose a version of Linux and a desktop environment that works best for you. It’s actually pretty straightforward. Each environment is just a little bit different in its own way.

You should do some research and watch some videos and pick out one that you like instead of following the guide blindly.

It’s strongly suggested that you learn and familiarize yourself with these distros. At least pick one that you can stick with and has decent LTS (long-term support). This will save you time when it becomes time for an update. Instead of breaking the game, you’ll be able to keep playing without a hiccup.

If you want to try installing a different version or desktop, you’d change the code above with your specific choices. The “-r” dictates the release version. The “-t” dictates the desktop UI.

For example, if you wanted to install the Saucy release with the kde desktop, you’d type:

“sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r saucy -t kde”

Or if you wanted to install Precise with the Cinnamon desktop:

“sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r precise -t cinnamon”

Easy enough, right? You just replace the code with whatever version of Ubuntu and desktop UI you want.

But you should note:

If you don’t input any -r flag, Ubuntu Precise will be installed by default.

If you don’t input any -t flag, the Unity desktop environment will be installed by default.

You can also install a whole bunch of other extras following the “-t” flag. For example, you can use any of the following arguments to customize your installation:

If you want the Chrome browser installed by default, add “chrome”

If you want keyboard support for the Chromebook’s exclusive keys, add “keyboard”

If you have a touchscreen and want to use it, add “touch”

If you want a media player, add “xbmc”

If you want to be able to copy and paste between Linux and Chrome OS, add “extension”

If you want to be able to play audio, add “audio”

For example, if you wanted to install Precise with Cinnamon and have touchscreen and audio playback, you’d input the following line:

Personally, I use the “audio” and “extension” and “keyboard” arguments only. I find that those three additions are the most helpful to keep a Chromebook feeling like a Chromebook and also keeps the process integrated between two operating systems. You can customize your Linux installation however you’d like.

After you’ve chosen a distro and desktop, it’s time to install Linux. To keep this guide as simple as possible, I’ll install a basic version of Ubuntu with the Unity desktop environment.

No customization? No problem.

If you’ve read all that and don’t feel the need to install a customized version of Linux, just go with the default installation of Saucy with unity.

Type the following line of code in the command prompt:

“sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r saucy -t unity -e”

This will install the 13.10 version of Ubuntu with some added encryption. I find that it works well with League and the rest of this guide.

Okay, so you’ve typed in your code and Linux should now be installing. This will take about 20-30 minutes. Go take a break. Read up on some Diamond Kog’Maw guides to sharpen your artillery strike.

Note: If you get an error that reads:

“WARNING: saucy has reached upstream end-of-life.
That means there will be no package updates available.
You also have to specify a mirror to crouton (-m) for installation to proceed.”

There are two ways you can get around this error.

You can use a temporary fix that’ll let you advance and continue with the guide. But any future updates may cause the game to not be playable (whether it fails to launch, can’t be played, or any other reason). It’s pretty much like a Band-Aid patch over the wound. It’ll work for now and it’s easy, but it’s not a good solution if you plan to take League seriously on your laptop.

All you need to do is replace the code with:

“sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r saucy-rolling -t unity -e”

The only addition is the “-rolling” flag which will install a different version of Saucy. Again, keep in mind that this is only good for a temporary fix. It could suddenly stop working anytime. I only recommend this if you know what you’re doing or you’re familiar with Linux.

The other technique is that you can download the newest version of Ubuntu with good support. Saucy was used in Ubuntu 13. The newest version of Ubuntu is 16. So quite a few updates have been made to the distro. If you do this method, you’ll end up with a stable solution that’ll give you fewer headaches in the long run. The only catch is you have to install it using a different command (but that’s pretty easy to do- even if you’re not familiar with code).

There are plenty of guides online that’ll teach you how to get the latest version. Just do some quick reading and you’ll be set.

You’ll have to choose which desktop environment you want, but as long as you install Ubuntu, this guide should work just fine. If not, leave a comment and I’ll help you out.

Besides, it’s good to learn a little because you’ll be able to solve issues that arise later on. It’s always better to teach someone how to fish, right?

You should now have a brand new desktop environment to play around in.

Familiarize yourself with it. If you look at the launch bar, you’ll see that there’s a folder with the username you created. This is connected to the “Downloads” folder in Chrome OS. Files and media you put in here will be accessible between both operating systems. How convenient is that?

Step 7: Install Synaptic

Synaptic will help you install the Ubuntu Software Center.

You only need three applications to play LoL on your Chromebook (besides the game itself). This is one of them.

Right now, your Ubuntu desktop should be pretty bare-bones. You can install other applications if you wish, but for the sake of minimizing error, you should install League of Legends first before you screw around. Even though it may look tempting as you’re installing this stuff, you should avoid it (for now).

Look for the button in the top-left corner with the Ubuntu icon. Click on it.

A search box will appear. Type in “term” and you’ll be greeted with the terminal window (yay, more code).Type in “sudo apt-get install synaptic” and press Enter.

Your laptop will then fetch and install Synaptic automatically. Wait until it’s done.

When it’s done installing, type in the following code in the same window:

“Sudo synaptic” and press Enter.

This will launch the application.

Step 8: Install Ubuntu Software Center

The Ubuntu Software Center will make installing League of Legends a lot easier.

Now that you’ve installed Synaptic, it’s time to install the Ubuntu Software Center.

Launch Synaptic if you haven’t already and then in the search bar, type in “software center.” This will bring up a list of applications, and there are a lot of them.

You’ll need to look for it. When you see it, tick the checkbox next to the app. When you tick it, it’ll also automatically install a few other applications as well. This is normal. It’s because the Software Center requires a few other applications to run properly.

First, just do exactly as you did with Synaptic (click on the Ubuntu icon and type in “term” to launch the command terminal.

Then type “gksu software-center” and press Enter.

It’ll then launch the Software Center.

Step 9: Install 7zip

You’ll probably need 7zip to extract the files and install the actual game.

Finally, a program you may have heard of before. It’s called 7zip.

We’ll probably need this to unzip the game, though we may end up not using it at all. Let’s download it just in case.

To install it, launch the Software Center and search for “7zip.”

Tip: Try searching for “7 zip” instead if you can’t find it.

After you’ve found it, go ahead and install it. It should be straightforward.

Step 10: Install PlayOnLinux

PlayOnLinux will let you run League of Legends on your Chromebook. You need this program.

This is the main application you’ll need to be able to play League of Legends on your Chromebook.

PlayOnLinux will let you run League (and a whole bunch of other games) on Linux OS.

You’ll need to install PlayOnLinux by doing the following:

Open up your command terminal (refer to Steps 5 or 6 if you forgot how).

Type in “sudo apt-get install playonlinux” and press Enter.

Linux will then automatically install the application. Be patient as it may take a while.

(If you’re stuck, you can try asking a question PlayOnLinux at their support forums.)

Step 11: Enable Curl on Linux

PlayOnLinux requires curl, which is basically a command that allows Linux to download content from the Internet. You’ll obviously need it to download League.

Once you enable it, it doesn’t require any more user interaction so you only have to do this once. Here’s proof straight from the Linux manual:

curl is a tool to transfer data from or to a server, using one of the supported protocols (DICT, FILE, FTP, FTPS, GOPHER, HTTP, HTTPS, IMAP, IMAPS, LDAP, LDAPS, POP3, POP3S, RTMP, RTSP, SCP, SFTP, SMB, SMBS, SMTP, SMTPS, TELNET and TFTP). The command is designed to work without user interaction.

To enable it, all you need to do is open the command prompt and type in the following:

“sudo apt-get install curl” and press Enter.

This will enable curl on your copy of Linux so you can download League of Legends.

Step 12: Download and Install League of Legends onto your Chromebook

This is where you’ll actually be downloading the game.

Are you pumped yet? If not, go watch some OddOne or Voyboy on Twitch and then come back. (Not that I see how that’ll get you pumped to play LoL on your Chromebook.)

Anyway, open up the command terminal and type the following:

“playonlinux” and press Enter.

It’ll start loading up and it’ll probably take a few seconds.

When it’s done, look at the menu bar and find the “testing” box. (This text may have changed since then.)

Search for “league of legends” and it’ll pop up. Click on it to launch it and go through the on-screen prompts. You’ll see a whole bunch of warnings and errors thrown at you, but it’s okay. Just ignore them and continue clicking “next.”

The game will start to install when you’re done going through all the prompts.

Step 13: Wait (and keep your Chromebook awake)

This step takes a while and is pretty important so I made it into its own step.

When the game is installing, it’ll take a pretty long time. Like, several hours long. Or even days (YMMV).

The issue is that Chromebooks have a set sleep timer. Even though you’re running in Ubuntu, your Chromebook will still enter sleep mode. If your laptop goes to sleep, it’ll freeze and crash the client. If this happens, you’ll have to start over from Step 11.

To stop your Chromebook from entering sleep mode, you have several options:

I really don’t recommend this because you’ll literally be stuck with your Chromebook for hours. Unless that’s your thing.

Option 2: Install Crouton integration (and play League of Legends in a browser tab)

This is pretty awesome.

It’s an app that’ll basically launch Crouton in a single tab on your Chrome browser. It basically takes the whole experience and puts it in a tab on your browser.

You can download League while you surf the web, watch movies, do homework, or whatever else you do while the game downloads in the background. This minimizes effort and keeps you productive (and reduces your time required to set this whole thing up).

Even more awesome is that you can even play the game in that single tab. You can full screen it and launch the game. It’s like playing a web-based version of League. You need to try it to believe it.

In fact, some of you will probably want to go this route even after it’s done installing.

When it’s done installing, it’ll launch itself in a tab on your Chrome browser. From here, you can continue with the next step.

Option 3: Install Crouton Integration and Keep Awake

This option takes Crouton Integration a step further.

Even if you have the game downloading in a background tab, it’ll still take hours or days (I’m not kidding).

A smarter option is to just download a Chrome Web Store app called Keep Awake. This does exactly what it says- it keeps your Chromebook awake. You can leave your Chromebook on overnight to download League rather than babysitting it all day (and/or night).

You can watch your movies, surf the web, do your homework, and then go to sleep and your Chromebook will stay awake and continue downloading.

Either way, it’s up to you. You can choose any of these options or make up your own. The point is to keep your Chromebook awake when it’s downloading the client. Don’t let it enter sleep mode. It’ll freeze the game install and you’ll have to restart.

Also, the game will probably freeze a few times during the installation. It usually happens when there’s just about 250mb left to download. This is completely normal.

It’ll appear to be frozen, but it’ll soon resume afterward. Be patient.

With Riot’s new game launcher, it seems to happen less often. So this may or may not apply to you.

Step 14: Error

After it’s done installing, you’ll see the launcher with an error.

This is normal. It’s part of the installation process on a Chromebook. You’re bound to get a few errors here and there.

You’ll see an option to play League of Legends with an automatically check-marked box. Uncheck this box and then close the launcher.

Note: It’s important that you make sure you the box isn’t ticked. You do NOT want to launch the game. If you do launch it by accident, you can continue to see if it’ll work. If not, you’ll need to uninstall LoL and try this step again.

Step 15: Fix the error

Now we’ll fix the problem.

Open up PlayOnLinux and look for the “Tools” menu. Click on it. Look for the PlayOnLinux console option and launch it.

After you launch it, you’ll see a command line (I told you there would be a whole lot of code, but don’t worry, I got you covered).

Type in the following command:

“POL_Config_Write NO_FSCHECK TRUE” and press Enter.

It’ll then turn off error checking. Close the PlayOnLinux console when it’s done (it should be instant).

Step 16: Install the game again

This is the last time you’ll have to install LoL.

Go ahead and try installing the game again (refer to Step 11 if you need help) and it should install without any errors being thrown.

Since you’ve already installed the game once, it’ll ask if you want to overwrite the League of Legends installer. Go ahead and choose the “overwrite” option. You’ll want to do so.

After it launches and the game installer pops up, click on the “repair” option. It’ll then continue to install and repair the game. It should take a few minutes. Be patient.

After it’s done installing League, you can exit the installer.

Step 17: Play League of Legends

Click “Play” and launch the game!

Congrats. You did it. You can now play League of Legends on your Chromebook =].

(Gasp.)

It’s finally time…to enter the Fields of Justice

Go ahead and launch the game.

If you still have the launcher open, you can launch the game by ticking the box (yes, it’s OK this time) to automatically run the game.

Note: Don’t tick the “Remember me” box. This will likely throw errors. You’ll have to type in your credentials every time when you log in.

If you’ve exited the launcher, you can do so by simply launching from your applications menu using the shortcut, or by using the command prompt (which you should have a grasp on using by now, if not, refer to any of the earlier steps that utilize the command prompt).

If the game works, congrats. You’ve just installed League of Legends on your Chromebook. It’s time to “R” the @&!# out of that squishy LeBlanc.

If not, check out what errors are being thrown and try again. It could take a few tries before it works. Sometimes the game will install and run on the second attempt even if you did the same exact thing as the first attempt.

If not, you need to mess around with the settings, do some research, and ask around in some forums. I’m afraid there’s no “universal solution” to getting the game installed and running, so it widely varies depending on your situation.

Sometimes you need to initiate a full repair. Other times you need to reinstall the game. If you really want this game to work, you’ll have to try multiple times.

It’s annoying and frustrating, but for some magical reason it works after you’re about to give up. It really depends on how much you want to play LoL on your Chromebook.

Try redownloading. Try reinstalling. Try repairing. There are a ton of reasons why it won’t work. Don’t waste too much of your time doing this though. Just initiate the task and go do something else. It’s always a shame to wait overnight for it to install and see that it doesn’t work.

Remember, we’re trying to get League to run on a device that was never meant for it to run on. And we’re doing this by hacking our way through it with different applications. It’s not exactly a cakewalk.

There are a few common problems that users get when trying to install the game. I have some solutions to troubleshoot these issues in a later section.

You can also post your error(s) here in the comments and I’ll see if I can help you out.

Improving League of Legends performance and FPS

Improve performance of League on your Chromebook with these tips.

Okay, so now that you’ve gotten League of Legends running on your Chromebook, you may notice that performance isn’t up to par like you’d expect.

Believe it or not, League is more CPU-intensive rather than GPU-intensive. In other words, the game requires more system resources from your processor rather than the graphics card.

However, Chromebooks don’t have dedicated graphics cards (at least not yet). Therefore, all the game processing is done with the Intel HD graphics coprocessor.

This isn’t a discrete graphics card, but rather a portion of the CPU used for rendering games, videos, and other motion-heavy applications.

Again, League of Legends doesn’t really use a lot of the GPU, so worry about Chromebooks having no dedicated video card. The Intel HD graphics is suitable. It’s all about the CPU.

To increase performance and squeeze out more frames on your Chromebook, you’ll want to do the following to get a significantly better FPS in League of Legends:

Turn character quality, shadows, environment quality, and effects quality to the lowest setting

Doing these will give you a noticeable performance boost in the game. With these settings, I go from a measly 3-12 FPS to about 22-25 FPS on my Acer CB3-131 (Intel Celeron CPU, 2GB RAM) on the lowest settings.

This particular laptop is pretty dated by today’s newer Chromebooks. I can play the game, but not competitively. Of course, a stable 30 frames would be nice, but the Chromebook isn’t equipped with powerful hardware.

So it’s safe to assume your basic Chromebook with an Intel Celeron processor and 2GB of RAM will net you on about 22-25 FPS on the lowest settings. Is this playable? Yes, but it’s not ideal. But if you’re just trying to get your League fix, then it’s worth it.

Of course, if you have a newer Chromebook, you should have a nice performance boost over older ones.

I also tried playing League of Legends on a modest Acer c270p Chromebook (Intel Celeron CPU, 4GB RAM, 32GB SSD) which I borrowed from a friend. I got about 20-40FPS with heavy fluctuation. I netted 30 FPS on average. During team-fights, it drops down to about 20-25 FPS with human players. It’s a lot smoother and playable than the Acer CB3-131.

If you have a newer laptop, you’ll probably be able to get an average 30 FPS out of it. Definitely playable. A lot of them now come with 4GB of RAM like it’s the new standard. They also have higher resolution screens and convertible form factors as well.

Follow the on-screen prompts and you should be able to play League using Lutris.

This should fix a few problems you may be having with PlayOnLinux, such as the patcher buttons not working or the game not launching/installing.

League of Legends Patcher gets stuck

If the patcher gets stuck, there a few ways you can deal with this:

Don’t let your Chromebook sleep

Make sure your Chromebook doesn’t go to sleep when it’s patching or downloading the game. I’ve covered this above and provided a few solutions to remedy the installer getting stuck. Please refer to Step 12.

Reinstall League using a copy from Windows

This solution requires a bit more work. But if you want to play it enough, you may want to give it a shot.

Note: The following steps assume you’ve already gone through this guide and you have a working version of Linux and PlayOnLinux installed.

We’re going to try to copy a version of League from Windows onto your Chromebook.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Download League onto a Windows-based computer. You can get the latest client here.

All the processing power and rendering is done on your PC, so it doesn’t really require any powerful hardware. You’ll be able to play the game relatively smoothly with decent FPS if assuming your Chromebook isn’t too underpowered.

Sound good?

All you need to set up a stream are the following:

Windows PC with League of Legends

Chromebook

Chrome Remote Desktop app (completely free)

A pretty fast Internet connection (going both ways)

It all really depends on your connection speed. If you have a fast connection, you’ll be able to play the game with little-to-no latency.

For most gamers, I assume you’re going to want to play away from home (because if you’re at home, you’d just play on your PC). That’s kinda the point of having a laptop- for portability and so you can play LoL on-the-go.

The Chrome Remote Desktop app lets you connect to your home PC anywhere in the world. It works by connecting your Chromebook and PC via a remote connection based on an Internet connection (not a local area network (LAN) connection).

So, if you have fast Internet at home but a slow connection using the free WiFi at your favorite cafe, it’ll bottleneck and the game will be slow.

So you need to think about it on both ends if you want a fast, playable session of League.

Are you ready to enter the Fields of Justice (on a Chromebook)?

Enter the Fields of Justice and serve it on a $250 laptop.

Well, that’s about it.

I wrote this tutorial to help out anyone who wants to get some League of Legends action on their Chromebook.

The game is seriously that addicting and fun that it’s worth bringing it around with you on your laptop. I mean, how else are you gonna practice your Living Artillery strikes on Lux without being able to play while you’re away from home?

If you have any questions (or you’re stuck), go ahead and leave a comment and I’ll get back to you ASAP.

If you’ve found this guide helpful, please consider telling a friend about it (or just leaving a comment). It makes it all worth it knowing that it helped you in some way.

Thanks for reading. And keep on blasting those squishies with those perfectly-timed, blind, and gosu-accuracy “R” artillery strikes.

About Andy Z.

Andy is a casual-hardcore Chrome OS fan and contributes to the site regularly. He likes computers, tech, sports cars, videogames, and of course, Chromebooks. Thinker. Introvert. Geek. You can find him on Twitter (@platytech), or send him an email (platy@platypusplatypus.com).

Thanks for the walkthrough! I am having a problem when pushing the button to download Lol from the client. The button doesn’t work. I have tried deleting and re-installing Lol several times with the same result. I tried the Debug feature through playonlinux and the terminal log shows the following error each time I try pressing the install button…

Okay, I have actually gotten all the way to the installing step of LoL. For some reason though, I can’t launch the LoL Patcher when it says install new client. Not sure what the problem is. Further more, I cant even use the command line when i access “playonlinux console”. Every time I click it shows up for a very split second and disappears.

It basically means your system is locked. This usually happens if you forget to use “sudo” when typing in a command, or another program has locked the apt database because it’s performing an action in the background.

Hi… I feel so bad to bring forth all these questions, but I’ve gotten as far as Step 8 where you say:
“Then type “gksu software-center” and press Enter.
It’ll then launch the Software Center.”
It doesn’t launch it for me… is there another command I could input?

Disregaurd my last comment, I fixed it. What I have trouble with is that when I go into Linux, there is no Ubuntu logo in the top left corner, I followed the video link, so how can I tell if i’ve installed Ubuntu?

Could you send me the coding you used in step 3 to install Linux? I think that’s where I went wrong, I’d like to keep the google feel too it as well but I’m having a little trouble figuring out what to input =D…
Thank you!

Ok so I got to the desktop screen and then i went back to the crouton screen thing and when I tried getting back on it asked for a localhost login and when I typed in my user and password it said it was wrong and made me retry and now it keeps asking for the localhost login and won’t let me do anything including go back or shut off my computer

Hi Andy,
And thanks for such a great guide on this complex system. It worked great, but for my system, every time I use the download client on PlayonLinux it won’t allow me to download the application, the button instead loses color and texture with each press of the mouse key. I’ve also redownloaded the client throu Pol 5 times now and each time the same problem happens. If you know anything on what I could try it would be a big help! Thanks again!

i am scared to complete the step where i install Play on Linux because just before the very end of the download a pop up informs of a EULA. should i continue? is it safe?
will anything happen to me (e.g. fine) ?

All you need to do is read and accept the EULA- as with pretty much any software out there.

As far as I know, it doesn’t really violate any law and doesn’t go against Riot Games’ ToS, so you should be okay. And there are also a ton of people who play League on Linux, and they haven’t been banned, fined, or anything of the sort.

I’ve gone through all the way to installing League. When Prompted to Install League, I press the “Install League of Legends” in the client, only for it not to work. I’ve downloaded Ubuntu, gotten everything going so far until actually getting my first download to work. When prompted with the League client, I click the button but League will not actually begin to download. Any ideas what I’m doing wrong? Thanks a BUNCH!

Hey Zach, Does it just freeze and do absolutely nothing? Or do you see progress (albeit very slow)? The game may take several days to download and the process is very slow. You’ll also have to keep your Chromebook “on” the entire time, which can be done using extensions like Keep Awake, or you can disable sleep mode and leave it on overnight to download. If the game shows no progress of downloading, I’d suggest deleting the client and trying to install it again. Sometimes, it magically works the second time around. There was a comment posted here regarding the… Read more >>

Help! I can bypass the step where I type “shell,” but afterwards I can’t type the code for downloading Linux. I’m no tech wizard, but I’ve tried different variations of the codes I found online, but every time it keeps responding with:
sh: Can’t open /home/chronos/user/Downloads/crouton

Hey, Double-check that Dev Mode is enabled. Chrome OS has a habit of reverting back to the default mode if you restart or put your Chromebook into hibernate mode because OS Verification switches back on. Also check that crouton is indeed in your local “Downloads” folder (the default one) and not in a custom folder or directory. Be sure that the file actually present in the folder. And be sure to that you’re typing everything in with the proper casing (including “shell” and “sudo”). If all that doesn’t work, try using this code instead: “sudo sh ~/Downloads/crouton -r trusty -t… Read more >>

Thanks for your help! Now I’m stuck at PlayOnLinux, specifically step 14/15. The error that keeps popping up for me is something along the lines of “error in pol shortcut binary not found lol.launcher.admin exe.” (This always pops up after the step where I uncheck the box after installation). If this is supposed to happen then it’s step 15 I’m having trouble with; I can’t seem to open the PlayOnLinux console, for it blinks open for a half a second and then it goes away. What do I do now? Anyway, thanks for your help and quick response—please let me… Read more >>

Yeah, it should work. The majority of Acer laptops are powered by Intel anyway.

And if you want to be sure you’re running the right hardware, you can check if you have an Intel processor easily by launching Chrome and then typing in “chrome://system” and hitting Enter.
Click on “cpu” on the left table and look for Intel on the right.

For some reason, I can’t get past step 15. I can click on Tools and open up Playonlinux Console. The command barely shows up, it shows up for like 1/100th of a second and disappears. It must’ve been because of a wine file that I deleted, but it actually made my installation avaliable when I couldn’t install it.

I did it! I loaded a rift game! Such a good feeling. I left the updater going over night. It downloaded a few more times. And was ready to login when I woke up. But the fun didnt start there. First three attempts to log in were met with a bug splat. I was almost ready to just throw in the towel. But wanted to try a few more things. I opened league settings. And initiated a full repair. (didnt take long) first login attempt after was a success! But still more troubleshooting… I found that by checking ‘remember me’… Read more >>

Okay so I have recognized something that may be helpful or not. On the Utunbu terminal, when I type in “playonlinux” it gives me two errors. One which is the “FS_CHECK Warning: The following file is located on a noexec mounted file system. It might prevent wine from working.” in the terminal that you knew was going to happen but I can’t delete it because the playonlinux console is flickering or appearing and instantly disappearing. The second is an “Error” pop-up or tab that says “Your file system might prevent PlayOnLinux from running correctly. Please open PlayOnLinux in a terminal… Read more >>

For reference i’ve installed the game I think 3 or 4 times. Always ensuring to Un tick the box to launch. And i’ve removed the check in console. Reinstalled both with overwrite and erase.. Same effect. I open the Launcher to this out of date client splash screen with a link to install and it doesnt work… May just have to wait till I’m home and try off external

Yeah, I’ve been getting some reports from readers that they’ve been downloading an older version. Something is funky.
I’ll take a look into it and if I can find a solution to which I’ll post here. Something must’ve updated and screwed up the process.

Is it throwing any errors or just does nothing?
If you find a fix, please let us know.

I think I finally hit the point you mentioned about it taking … hours/days…. patching this game from zero is no joke…I mistakenly tried to login when the download had completed and it was applying patches ( I don’t recommend it) got a bug splat. and had to re-download… currently at about 34% (applying patches) Not sure if the internet connection is still required but i did set up the extension to keep awake. hoping i can go back to chrome switch the net to my hotspot and keep this running on my drive home. . . . . fingers… Read more >>

Hey, Yeah, the patcher is like if dial-up had dial-up before dial-up went mainstream. It’s crazy how slow it can get. Hopefully that connection transfer doesn’t screw it up. I’m just sitting here reading your about your story with a face you’d see in a Matrix meme. I’m honestly impressed with the progress you’ve freakin’ made. Now that’s taking initiative. There are some other readers with similar questions as you. Hopefully your strides can help them out too. If you have the time, keep us updated. I’ll have to incorporate your tips in the guide on the next update (with… Read more >>

So i’ve got a hp windows laptop with the i7-4500u and 8gb of ram Intel graphics. and it runs this game fairly well at 60fps even in fights. (of course with low spec mode enabled) so i’m kind of surprised this isn’t doing at LEAST that good. There is obviously some issues with the way things are set up atm. I’m not giving up just yet. I feel I should be able to play and feel competitive with this set up after some tweaks. Made it through an entire aram without issue! Played lee (not my best champ) and got… Read more >>

WOOT. CONGRATS. I’m stoked you got it working =]. I’m glowing with excitement by living vicariously through you. I’m actually pretty surprised your frames even drop under 30 with that setup. When I had it running on my underpowered little Acer CB3-131 (Celeron/2GB RAM) my frames were all over the place. Your FPS is still nearly double that of mine though. If you manage to find the ideal setup, let me know. I’m going to update this guide with your tips (again, with credits to you). Nice work on that front. I can only imagine the looks on their faces… Read more >>

woooooot! i may have hit the jackpot. So after many failed attempts. I opened the Configure tab in POL, and changed the wine version to the latest version at the top of the list. re ran league, let it download some stuff.. and presto.. i’m at the login screen!

well… i’m possibly a step closer. While on EU region the client downloaded 1.3 gb update file. then…. apparently didn’t do anything… i waited a few minutes. perhaps 10. nothing happened. So i closed the launcher. re-opened, and changed the region back to NA, YAY.. .I now have the Launch button (client ver still reads the same 0.87.0.17) But i’ve got a launch button… YAY…. I click it….. IT makes the sound YAY…. Then the window disappears. … 🙁 POL throws the following terminal error. i’ll check league logs as well to see if there is anything in there… ALSA… Read more >>

Sorry I was typing quickly as I’m at work. But. Meant to also thank you for this very detailed guide. One thing I’ll add to my previous note is it seems the client version being installed is 0.87.0.17…

So after many attempts… I’m getting into the league Launcher / client. Without error. But i’m getting a page that the time to update is here. I guess this is the old client? Anyway clicking the link ‘install league of legends’ in the out of date client, does… Nothing…

Hey, Hmmm…did you enable Developer Mode? Chrome OS won’t let you use any commands if it isn’t enabled. Here’s a guide that covers how to enable it step-by-step. Also, it has a habit of reverting back out of Dev Mode whenever you close your Chromebook’s lid or restart it. After you enable it, you need to make sure you keep OS Verification off by pressing the right key when you see the warning screen show up (it’ll pop up before it lets you log in to your Google Account). Lastly, be sure to double-check your spelling and not use any… Read more >>

Try checking your spelling. And make sure you have Developer Mode enabled.
Chrome OS tends to reset itself automatically back into the default mode whenever you boot up your laptop. You need to make sure OS Verification is off for any code to work.

It should be “crouton” instead of “croutons.” Is that a possible file name error?
If that’s not the issue, you can try using the Crouton extension for Chrome OS. Please refer to the guide. There’s a section for installation via the extension.

update: i got software center to run and i tried downloading playonlinux it worked after awhile it finished and showed a terms and conditions but i could not accept it wouldn’t let me click so i closed it assuming i had downloaded it but cannot download curl so i thought to try downloading playonlinux again but it won’t let me do that either is says: E: could not lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock – open (11: resource temporarily unavalible) E: unable to lock administrator directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it? please HELP been stuck trying to get this to work for two… Read more >>

the first and third one i tried said cannot remove no such directory the second one i tried did nothing so i tried playonlinux and sudo apt-get install playonlinux and i got playonlinux command not found, E: could not lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock – open (11: resource temporarily unavailable) E: unable to lock administrator directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?

Hmm…it’s likely that something else is running and locked your system. It usually happens when you boot up your laptop and it’s searching for updates.
You’ll have to find whatever other process is running and end the process.

Do you have a stable WiFi connection on your laptop?
When you change your OS to Linux, sometimes network drivers get kind of buggy. It could be a driver issue and you need to update your drivers for the new OS.

If you’re already running Linux, it should work (in theory.)
The setup before the installation of Linux is specifically catered towards Chrome OS. And everything latter is for Linux, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.

If you can’t get it working, let me know and I’ll see if I can get a solution going =].